What ATO Do You Have ?

I've read tons of great reviews on the JBJ unit. Have one coming in the mail this week. I'll let you know what I think when I get things up and running.

 

i have the JBJ its been running 6 months. and has been working great. very little water drop and it kicks in.

con.. the suction cup holders it does have a clip type also but that doesnt work on a acrylic sump, because of the edge is different on the acrylic sumps.

my revision was this Eshopps Magnetic Probe Holder - AquaCave it now holds my ph probe and the ato sensor. that sensors staying put now

 

I custom made mine.. Spent less than $20.00 in parts, including the solenoid valve..

 

I was looking at the Tunze, however I will have my RO/DI water resorvoir tank in the floor underneath my dt - The Tuneze ATO pump seem to be made for low head pumping.
However the litermeter pump can handel the head height.

Any suggstions for an ATO with a resorvoir in a lower floor?
Thanks,

 

I have a JBJ and really like it. It may not be laser accurate, but it does the job and never takes a day off. I'm very, VERY happy with it and highly recommend it.

 

I've been very happy with my dual switch unit from autotopoff

Not too expensive, no metal parts and redundancy is nice. It fits well on my tank and isn't too obtrusive after I painted it black with some Krylon Fusion. It's both a negative and positive that it doesn't come with a pump. The negative being you need to buy one on top of the unit. The positive being that you can buy one that suits your needs. I use a maxijet 400. You could use something as small as an aqualifter, though. If you needed to pump far distances, you could hook up something bigger. This February it would have been hooked up for a year and has worked flawlessly for me so far.

 

If the reservoir is so much as in a lower floor, I'm going to guess 9 feet bellow if you take into account joists and plywood, etc. You'll need something like a mag drive 5 here are the results I got:

Total losses are 10 feet of head pressure, or 4.32 PSI. with a flow rate of 14 GPH. Process took 180 iterations.

Here is a nice head pressure loss calculator, it's a very nice find I think:
http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc...Couplings=0&CheckValves=0&Exits=1&Entrances=1

 

I just got 2 JBJ ATO's last week for my 120 and 30 gallon reefs.

So far, so great!!! I really like that the level does not need to drop more than 1/4" or so in the sump to kick off the sensor. That results in ultra-consistent water levels as well as only minimal additions of cooler, fresh water which will not shock the warmer saltwater system.

I see that a lot of other ATO units need a more significant water level drop (+1/2") and that would make it such that I would always be adjusting the skimmer/and or not operating efficiently with the constant water level changes.

 

got one from aquahub.com,
Top-it-Off Kit Premium

pros:
pretty cheap,
also uses simple components should a float switch fail, I can get a new one from ebay for a couple dollars.
Has a back up float switch, should the primary fail it won't dump the whole reservoir into the tank.
uses a relay to prolong float switch life.

pro or con:
extremely sensitive, it will top the tank off a soon as a slightest drop. however this results in alot of incomplete top-offs(water never makes it out of the hose) if the water has a little wave in it. This can cause the switch to burn out faster. I have mine on a timer for twice a day.

con: float switches do burn out.
It's a kit, although extremely simple.

 

The Spectrapure UPLC-II uses the LiterMeter pump so can handle up to 60 feet of head or can be mounted at the tank and lift water up to 25 feet below. My UPLC is in the stand under my display and pulls water from a 23 gallon storage vessel 35 feet away in my garage.